Andover votes out Fromberger from longtime school board service Re-elects incumbents elsewhere; OKs first million dollar budget

By Cynthia Prairie
© 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC

The Andover Town Meeting, rescheduled from this past snow-bound Saturday, went off without too many hitches on Tuesday afternoon as 60 plus voters gathered at Town Hall and almost a dozen showed up on Zoom to hear the proceedings.

But in a surprise action — once the Australian balloting was counted Tuesday night — Andover residents had turned out Joe Fromberger from his longtime seat representing Andover in the various iterations of the school boards over many years.  Most recently, Fromberger was the chair of the board of directors of the Green Mountain Unified School District. Scott Kendall, who had served on the Andover Select Board, beat Fromberger 45 to 36.

Incumbent Select Board member Melissa Gates-Perry was elected to a full three-year term, fending off a challenge by Gene Pategas, who runs the trails for the Andover Mountaineer Snow Riders and expressed his concern about short-term rentals. Pategas made a fair showing but lost in balloting 25 to 37. Gates-Perry had been elected last March to fill the unexpired term left when Chris Walker abruptly resigned.

Winning re-election unchallenged by floor votes were Richard Griswold and Robin Trask, both to one-year terms.  And Susan Leader was elected to finish out the final year of the three-year term held by Maddy Bodin, who resigned in mid-March of 2022. Leader had been appointed by the board to fill Bodin’s seat until she could stand for election to fill the remainder of the term.

The second challenge to a candidate occurred when Eugene Garvey, who has a degree in public administration and was a real estate broker, was nominated to run against incumbent Francesca Salazar for the three-year term as Lister, which Salazar has served as with her husband for a number of years. One of the main jobs of a Lister is to assess the value of property for tax purposes. Select Board member Susan Leader asked if Garvey could be on the ballot as well since two positions were technically open. However, Town Clerk Jeanette Haight said that would not be possible since only one position was warned.

However, after much discussion, it was decided that the Select Board could appoint the losing candidate to the position. The balloting took place with Salazar winning 38 to Garvey’s 22.

In other action, Andover voters approved its first million dollar budget — $1,066,178 to be exact.  And, after much discussion, voters  ditched Andover’s traditional annual meeting  on the Saturday before the state’s official Town Meeting Day in favor of meeting on Monday, March 4 , 2024, with the time still to be decided.

With no surprise, Haight was re-elected Town Clerk, Town Treasurer and collector of delinquent taxes; and Jon Bliss was re-elected Town Moderator.

Finally, after more than two and a half hours, the meeting was adjourned when several audience members expressed a nagging hunger.